Faithful
by COOKIECHEESEMAN
Summary: FE4. Tiltyu is the only one who can get through Sigurd's pained heart. The question is, would their growing relationship label him as unfaithful to the one he's lost? Claude's seen the future of these two during his trip to the Blaggi Tower; should he say anything to the inevitably blooming couple, or simply allow something this pure to take its course? TiltyuxSigurd, plus Claude.
1. A Possibly Fateful Meeting

Author's Notes

With this story, I am committing the unforgivable sin of FE4; pairing Sigurd with someone other than Deirdre... I hope people don't run away because of that! And I hope people don't guest review because of it either! Watch out for possible spoilers.

I'm also using the non-FE13 names, although some of them overlap as the same anyway. It really shouldn't cause a huge issue, but nonetheless, I thought it should be mentioned in case someone gets confused.

The romance doesn't really feature in this chapter until closer to the end, because there is a bit of groundwork that must be laid out first, which includes a small bit of action! A rare treat for you action lovers out there!

* * *

Faithful

Chapter 1: A Possibly Fateful Meeting

Tiltyu continues to follow Claude, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to meet up with Sigurd's army before spending some quality alone time with Claude. Despite being a man of faith, he is still a man, and a handsome one at that. Her hope is that she can convince him to get closer to her, since the eventual outcome will be to enlist in Sigurd's army and become war-mates anyway.

"Claude, we almost to Madino yet?" she whines, tugging at his robes to get his attention. "I'm gettin' bored..."

"You don't have to follow me around," Claude sighs. Tiltyu raises an eyebrow at the suggestion as he continues, "you say you have feelings for me, a holy man of Blaggi, and insist on being my bodyguard... if you really want companionship, there are more appropriate choices..."

"Like who?"

Claude shakes his head at Tiltyu's insistence. "I have no idea. Considering who we will be joining up with for the next period of time, there's a possibility that your question will be answered after I consult with Blaggi at the Blaggi Tower. Don't give your hopes up, though."

"Cool!"

* * *

Waiting impatiently for Claude outside of the Blaggi Tower, Tiltyu paces back and forth in an effort to (unsuccessfully) make time go faster. Once again bored, she recalls her short conversation with Lord Sigurd at Madino. The two of them have known each other in their early years, but she was surprised when she heard that he had gotten married, especially to some girl no one had ever met before. Last she heard, Sigurd may have had feelings for Aideen, the Jungby princess, partially due to their respective castles being so close to each other.

Regardless, Sigurd's wife wasn't there with him at Madino; if she is as amazing as he makes her out to be, she must be a great person, Tiltyu believes.

"I guess Sigurd got lucky with the ladies! Now if I can just work on sweet Claude..." she muses out loud, and as she continues pacing, she glances out at the remarkable scenery of the ocean where a bunch of Dragon Riders, a Dragon Knight, and a Dragon Master are passing by for some reason. Noticing the insignia of Thracia on the saddles, she gasps; these riders must be mercenaries for hire. And Sigurd mentioned nothing about hiring help, so they must be going after Sigurd and his army!

Pulling out her Tron tome, she sends a large blast of lightning towards the group, just missing one of the Dragon Riders. The lone Dragon Master, who must be the leader, directs the Dragon Knight and two of the many Dragon Riders towards the source of the lightning blast: Tiltyu.

Panicking about what she has done, Tiltyu starts frantically darting around the tower and desperately sends off more Tron blasts towards the rapidly approaching trio of enemies. Being on winged mounts, though, they have superior dodging skills, effortlessly avoiding every one of her attacks. As Tiltyu gets more and more frantic in her assault, she accidentally falls down a hill she didn't notice before and crashes onto the ground; shrieking in pain, losing her extra Thunder tome, and twisting her ankle. Fearing her impending doom, she casts out Tron one last time...

However, she notices some sort of hidden power resonate through her body, and as a result her attack seems to multiply in power and range, sending off a bolt of lightning so large not even the swift dragons can avoid it. It instantly incinerates the Dragon Riders, leaving the Dragon Knight, whose dragon is just barely breathing let alone flying from the intense blast, astonished.

"Crap!" he yells, shaking his fist in Tiltyu's direction. "I'll have to heal that off with the Life Ring my dragon's wearing; he should be as good as new by the time we rendezvous back with the others. When we're done with our job, I'm personally coming back with the entire fleet to finish you off!"

Tiltyu, too tired and in pain to even send off another attack, watches helplessly as the Dragon Knight slowly flies back to his other comrades. Just as the rest of the dragons and their riders fly out of sight, Claude returns from the tower, gasping in surprise when he finds Tiltyu on the bottom of the hill.

"What happened?" he asks, quickly pulling out his Reserve staff to heal Tiltyu. As he heals her, she explains the whole story to him, and just as she is finishing, the growl of pirates can be heard in the distance. From far away, the two of them can see a gigantic horde of pirates exiting the island castle of Orgahill and splitting off into two groups: one towards Madino, and the other towards the Blaggi Tower.

"Pirates? Pirates are a cinch compared to dragons! So slow an' easy to hit!" Tiltyu exclaims, her mood picking up tremendously since the near fatal encounter of earlier. "I'll protect ya, Claude! Let's go!"

* * *

After Tiltyu and Claude meet up with a runaway Sniper trying to protect herself, the three of them make short work of the pirates who are trying to kill them. Eventually, Sigurd finds the trio, thankful that they were not killed from the pirate ambush. After speaking personally with Claude and the Sniper, the four of them head back to the captured Orgahill castle to regroup. On the way, though, Tiltyu trips and twists her ankle again; Claude's Reserve staff can heal wounds, but it's more suited for a large range of healing, not a small section like an ankle or an arm. Because of this, the ankle didn't completely set, and therefore made it easier to twist again.

_Not again! Claude, why aren't you here to help? I can't get back up..._

To make matters worse, a few stray pirates who were elsewhere during the fight notice the immobile Thunder Mage lying on the ground now, and they decide now is a good time to do something with her; whether it's kill her or use her for their own perverted purposes, it's irrelevant to the fact that Tiltyu is completely helpless right now, especially since she lost her Thunder tome earlier and used up her Tron tome fighting the other pirates.

_Someone... please save me..._

Just when Tiltyu loses all hope against the approaching pirates, an impressive horseman jumps in front of her and easily defeats the threat, barely needing to swing his sword. The horseman turns around...

It's Sigurd!

"S-Sigurd?" Tiltyu weakly calls, and Sigurd immediately gallops to her side, picking her up effortlessly and placing her on his horse. "Ya knew I was gone? I didn't think anyone was watchin'..."

"Of course. I can't leave anyone behind who's a friend or an ally," he answers, and as he's about to start walking along with the horse to let Tiltyu rest, the yell of yet another stray pirate causes the horse to rear up in surprise... leading to Tiltyu falling off of it.

"Look out!" Tiltyu shouts, but Sigurd has already killed the pirate by the time he catches her in his arms. Unfortunately for them, though, the horse is so spooked that it runs away towards the castle in the distance. So at this point, Sigurd has to carry Tiltyu until they reach the castle or until someone comes looking for them.

* * *

"Sigurd... thank ya for savin' me," Tiltyu says, holding on tight, but not painfully tight, to Sigurd's neck as he carries her on his back. "I'd been dead for sure!"

"No problem."

"No, really... before I got bored of his 'revelations', I heard from Claude all the things my dad's done to y'all, especially you," she laments, her face drooping in guilt. "He's part o' some conspiracy where ya get blamed for the death o' the prince. Ya should be hatin' me right now for bein' related to 'im..."

"I don't hate you. Why should I hate _you_?" Sigurd asks honestly, and the question makes Tiltyu's eyes widen in surprise.

"Ya... ya don't hate me? What if everyone else does because of what my father done to ya?"

"I'll firmly tell them not to, then," he reassures her, and a smile finally forms on her face since before she tripped and twisted her ankle again. Suddenly, though, she is switched into a princess hold position in Sigurd's arms, making her squeal in surprise. "Sorry," he apologizes, "but I need to hold you differently so my arms can still carry you... and no, it's not because you are heavy; you're very light in my arms. It's just a long distance."

"Thanks! This is comfy!" she giggles, snuggling herself slightly. "No wonder that Deirdre married ya; you're so nice and considerate! When ya need to be, anyway!"

Sigurd doesn't respond to the question.

"Siggy? I say something wrong?"

Sigurd raises his eyebrow at the nickname, but he doesn't mind it, so he ignores it. "No... but..."

He hesitates before finishing his disheartening thought: "Deirdre... is gone."

Tiltyu openly gapes as Sigurd produces a ring from his pocket, exactly the same as the one he is wearing on his finger.

* * *

Claude watches in relief as Sigurd returns with Tiltyu, knowing that they are safe from harm. But he also raises an eyebrow in interest when he notices Tiltyu happily sleeping in Sigurd's arms, wrapping her own around his torso, and Sigurd not even appearing to care about the possibly awkward consequences.

"Lord Blaggi, could it be... that you are actually right about your vision involving those two?"

* * *

Author's Notes

WHAT?!

I've been replaying FE4, and man, it's great. Now that I can plan every child out, it's awesome! AMBUSH-WRATH COMBO FOR ARTHUR AND TINNY! I guess replaying the game is also the inspiration for this fic. Just to warn you guys, most likely this will not be as light-hearted as my other fics normally are.

I believe there are "unforgivable sins" in the war-torn world of character shipping in every game. While I cannot come up with definite examples for other FE games at this point, I can for FE4: pairing up Sigurd with someone other than Deirdre. More about the situation will be explained in the coming chapters of the story, I can guarantee that!

Dialogue for Tiltyu is hard for me to write. I'm constantly checking her speech to see if it matches how she talks. I hope I did her justice! Really, I hope I did everyone justice, because this is a story I do NOT want to get wrong with OOCness, especially because it is such a controversial subject, I would believe.

Surprisingly, the entire scene with the Dragon Riders was really fun to write. I double-checked a ton of details about the chapter, (chapter 3 to be precise) such as the fact that the Dragon Knight boss you fight is holding a Life Ring, which would justify him being at full health when Sigurd's army fights him. And having Tiltyu lose the Thunder tome she holds with Tron would justify issues as well, because in game, she holds a Thunder tome and a Tron tome. And the Wrath skill was fun to play with, of course. :D I took a few creative turns with some things though, such as the effects of the Reserve staff.

Claude's final line is not meant as disrespect to Blaggi. It is simply disbelief in what he saw, which we will learn about more in future chapters.

Last chance to vote on my poll for which game my next Kissing Booth story will feature in! FE4 is not a choice, sadly, but I think it's for the best.

So, if there's anyone left who hasn't ripped their eyeballs out of their heads and ran away screaming... next update will come after the next chapter of AGOH (which should be quite interesting...) and my next request, as usual. I really hope you guys come to like this fic! I appreciate constructive criticism as well!


	2. Soup and Snow

Author's Notes

So, after looking at the rest of Tiltyu's game script, APPARENTLY HER MANNER OF SPEAKING ISN'T CONSISTENT. Her conversations in chapter 4 and 5 in-game? Her accent is a lot more normal, and she doesn't use the word "ya" ever again. She says "you", not "ya". GAH! So, at this point, I'm simply going to tone her "ya" use down slightly, not a lot. Thanks again everybody's buddy Gunlord500 for mentioning the quibble about Tiltyu sounding similar to Sylvia!

A friendly reminder: if you don't sign in when you review, no matter how awesome the review was, I have to delete it to prevent bias. Sorry! I had to delete a really nice guy's review because of this rule.

Watch out for spoilers in every chapter of this story and the author's notes of each chapter as well! This chapter takes place sometime before chapter 4 in-game, where there is a non-determinable amount of time (approximately 6 months or so, I think) that everyone is in Silesia before the fighting even begins.

* * *

Chapter 2: Soup and Snow

After arriving at Sailane in Silesia, Sigurd and his army are granted the opportunity for rest once they know Reptor and Langbart's armies cannot, for the time being, reach them there. Despite the security of the situation at the moment, the change in weather (from nearly tropical to snow-capped mountains) does not sit well with the majority of people.

Including Tiltyu.

"So cold!" she muses to herself, shivering in a small bed of blankets. "Father, why'd ya make us have to do this? Siggy did nothin' wrong..."

She pauses at these words. For the time being, everyone is staying at Sailane Castle, inevitably in close contact with each other. Since arriving, much to her disappointment, many of her war-mates are not treating her very well. In fact, they're upset with her, even though she shouldn't even be to blame for what her father is doing. It's not like they're being mean, though; it's more like they're simply being anti-social and just avoiding confrontation with her altogether. At this point, only Claude and her childhood friends Lex and Azel are treating her with any respect.

As well as Lord Sigurd.

Since experiencing his kindness in carrying her all the way back to Orgahill and letting her sleep in his arms, a strange emotion starts brewing in her heart. Every day since the arrival at the castle, they eat dinner together, along with Claude, Lex, and Azel. Sigurd always goes to rejoin some of his other war-mates at a later time, but during these meal times, she found out the truth, or what everyone believed to be the truth was, about Deirdre...

...she's dead.

**"_When we returned briefly to Agusty, where we last saw Deirdre... at the castle courtyard, there was a giant pile of rocks and rubble, soaked in blood... and on top of the rubble was her ring..."_**

After Sigurd recounted his tale that one day, all Tiltyu could do was gape. Sigurd was clearly suffering emotionally from the loss, and he never related this to anyone, with the exception of Queen Rahna, who is a supposed mother figure for him. A day where Tiltyu was bored in the castle, she decided to explore a bit and overheard the two of them talking about Deirdre's disappearance, and Tiltyu actually noticed a tear running down his face.

So, the logical course of action for her is to try and make him feel better. He's been nothing but kind to her regardless of the circumstances, so at least he deserves that.

* * *

Days after hearing Sigurd's secret confession to the queen, Tiltyu decides that perhaps a nice meal will be a start to making him feel better, as well as repay for his kindness.

_What better comfort food is there than a nice, warm bowl of soup? Besides, there will be enough to share with Claude later too!_

After getting Azel's help to start up the fire, Tiltyu puts the pot to boil and chops a few Silesian herbs to throw in. Once the herbs and a few other things are added, however, the difficult part begins: a watched pot never boils, yet you must sit and watch the pot so it doesn't start to melt the wood stove, burn the soup, or catch anything around it on fire.

Unfortunately, Tiltyu becomes painfully bored watching the pot, and soon falls asleep.

It isn't until she wakes up in her bed; completely bandaged and somewhat stiff; that she wakes up.

"What... happened..." she wonders, all of a sudden very worried about the situation she's in. When you're unconscious for a long period of time, it's an understandable reaction, especially when the room smells like smoke.

A quick glance around the room reveals Sigurd sleeping in the chair next to her bed, and when he eventually yawns and rubs the sleep out of his eyes, he notices Tiltyu sitting up in her bed, dazed and confused. Suddenly concerned about her condition, he tucks her back into the bed, explaining, "the cleric who took care of you told me that if she wasn't around and you tried to sit up, I had to tuck you back in. She just used her last stave before the incident, so she can't heal you until later tonight when she gets more. Your burns from the fire are severe, and you inhaled a lot of smoke. Any unnecessary pressure put on your body could cause you further damage."

_Burns... smoke... fire... SOUP!_

"The... soup..."

Tiltyu immediately starts hacking ferociously, and Sigurd gets up out of his chair to hold her down while she finishes her coughing spell. Eventually she settles, though, while noticing the worry in Sigurd's eyes over her condition. It is very comforting, to say the least.

"Cough cough... thank you... Siggy," she mumbles, and soon a warm smile writes itself on her face. "You treat me... so good. You don't have 'ta, though... you'd probably do... the same for Deirdre..."

Sigurd merely closes his eyes in sadness and Tiltyu immediately realizes her mistake. "Wait... I was making the soup..." she slowly breathes out, "to thank ya for everythin'... you done for me... but all I did... is make ya remember your pain..."

"...it was absolutely delicious."

Tiltyu widens her eyes in surprise.

"Even after you were saved, somehow, the soup survived the entire ordeal. And I was just so hungry..."

Sigurd's hunger confession lightens Tiltyu's heart tremendously, and she laughs in delight, albeit quietly due to her weakened state. Her laugh also lightens Sigurd's heart, and he begins to laugh along with her. Glad that she is going to be alright, Sigurd no longer has to worry, and he is able to relax now in her presence. "I'm glad you liked... the soup... even if I nearly burned myself... makin' it..."

Before long, the laughter subsides, and the two of them simply watch each other in comfortable silence. It is evident that Tiltyu is quickly recovering from the smoke inhalation, because her speech is quickly improving over the course of the conversation. "Thank ya for stayin' here and... keepin' me company," she says, shifting slightly under her covers. "I enjoy talkin' with you..."

Smiling at the comment, Sigurd replies, "You're welcome. So do I."

* * *

Tiltyu and Sigurd hide behind a snow fort the next day, waiting for an opportunity to attack the other fort with their pile of snowballs. Lex suddenly had the idea to have a snowball fight earlier, and after making the two forts, he and Azel started hurling ridiculous amounts of snowballs at Tiltyu and Sigurd, forcing them to take refuge.

And although Tiltyu is completely clothed in jackets and cloaks, she is shivering in the blistering cold of the weather. And just sitting isn't going to warm anyone up, but the merciless torrent of snowballs prevents any moving whatsoever.

"I'm a-absolutely f-f-frozen s-solid," she cries out, shivering and curled up to try and conserve body heat. Soon, however, Sigurd opens up his jacket, pulls Tiltyu into his chest, and holds her tight against him before closing up his jacket again, much to her surprise. "W-wha..."

"You're going to freeze to death out here," Sigurd clarifies, adjusting himself so that Tiltyu can more comfortably fit inside his jacket. "Thunder Mages are weak to Wind magic, and snow counts as Wind magic... so stay close to me; I'll share my body heat with you. We'll wait for them to give up so we can get back inside without getting bombarded with frigid snowballs."

In response, Tiltyu snuggles deeper in Sigurd's grasp before wrapping her own arms around him, saying, "T-thank you, Siggy..."

Once again, Sigurd's actions are very kind-hearted, and while Tiltyu greatly appreciates everything he is doing, she also starts to feel guilty. The strange emotion brewing in Tiltyu's heart emerges from the depths, and Tiltyu finally comes to the inevitably fearful conclusion: she is starting to have romantic feelings for Sigurd.

_But what about Deirdre? What if she's not dead? And he loved her so much... is it wrong to feel this way about him?_

* * *

Claude, equipped with a Fire tome to increase his resistance to the cold wind, watches as Sigurd holds Tiltyu protectively in his arms. Happy and concerned at the same time over the developments of the two innocent royals, he's interrupted by Lex shouting, "Hey! Claude! How much longer do we have to do this? Our arms are beat from throwing snowball after snowball! You done observing yet?"

Pulling out his Reserve Staff, Claude heals the two snowball throwers' arms so that they can continue their assault for a while longer. "Just a bit longer, please; I really wish to keep examining these two to see how this develops. I thank you dearly for your assistance."

Lex groans as he continues to throw snowballs with Azel, and Claude goes back to watching Tiltyu and Sigurd.

* * *

Author's Notes

I should probably clarify this, because I didn't figure this out myself until about a day ago: these aren't really the non-FE13 names, even though some of them technically aren't as well. In reality, these are the names used in the translation of FE4 I was playing with and played with in the past. (as well as Cormag Ravenstaff, since it's the translation I sent for him to play with!) For some reason, the names Deirdre AND Diadora were used throughout the game, so I decided to pick Deirdre because I like it more. :D

After a bit more research and knowledge refreshing, Tiltyu is shown in my eyes to be insecure when not bubbly. I hope I did her justice and didn't get her or Sigurd wrong! And for anyone not familiar with the properties of the weapon triangle in FE4, other than swords, lances, and axes, magic is split this way: Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Thunder, and Thunder beats Fire. Light and Dark magic are both separate and both beat the three elemental magics. Although only accuracy is affected by the weapon triangle, having the Thunder Mage Tiltyu weak to snow (Blizzard is a Wind tome in FE4 and 5) makes for much romantic cuddling. :p

In case you didn't notice, I obviously needed to change the events of the game for this to work. For example, is Deirdre alive like she's supposed to be in-game? Or is she actually dead? And, is there perhaps a chance that this story is going to continue after the events of chapter 5 in-game? That would require massive revision to canon. But screwing canon is one of my writing themes, right? :D

There isn't enough detail concerning the actual incident concerning the fire, but more details will be revealed about it in a later chapter.

The Kissing Booth poll finally has a result: FE8 is where my next installment will feature! When the first deadline arrived, FE8 was tied with, surprisingly, FE7, which has been done twice while nothing else has featured yet. Then, after that, FE6 got a huge surge of votes after my last AGOH chapter, making it a THREE way tie! The tie didn't break until sometime after Contract Woes, which was my last one-shot. I'll show the results on my profile page, so check it out!

Now, when will I write this next story? Uh... sorry, not sure! I have to make some adjustments to my writing schedule, which I will explain more fully in my next chapter of AGOH, which is coming next.


End file.
